Obama Christmas gift goes astray

A woman from the Chicago suburbs got an unexpected surprise for Christmas: A present from the Obama family to Sasha and Malia’s godmother.

The White House confirmed on Thursday that the family’s mailed present was delivered to the wrong person and said the family appreciates that the woman intends to send the package along to the right house.

“Parts of the old box were in this toilet paper box that the post office repackaged,” she said. “In the bottom of the box was this extra gift. And we were reading the tag, trying to figure out, you know, where this came from, and it was opened. So we then discovered this was a very personal gift to Mama Kaye.”

“Mama Kaye” is the nickname of Kaye Wilson, the godmother of Sasha and Malia Obama.

A picture of the gift showed a tag addressed to “Mama Kaye and Papa Wellington,” from “Barack, Michelle and the girls.”

Inside was a homemade photo book, like those that can be made on the photo-sharing site Shutterfly, containing pictures of the Obama family, Church said. She showed the cover, which featured a photo of Malia Obama smiling, to the camera, but wouldn’t show the inside.

“We are sort of wanting to keep it private for Mama Kaye. It’s very special, very special. Private moments of their year 2013 together,” Church said.

She said the family intends to send the gift on to Wilson.

The White House said Thursday the book was in fact from the Obama family.

“The president and first lady sent a book of photos to their children’s godmother for Christmas. There was an errant delivery, but we’re appreciative of the effort underway to make sure the gift arrives at the intended destination soon,” a White House official said.

The U.S. Postal Service said it was gathering information on the incident.